Parasaurolophus Facts for Kids
PAIR-uh-sore-OL-oh-fus · its name means “near crested lizard”
A duck-billed dinosaur with a long, hollow tube on its head.
- 📏 30 ft9 m1 long
- ⚖️ weight: not yet checked
- 🕰️ the Cretaceous
- 🍽️ plants
Parasaurolophus had a long tube on its head. It had a mouth like a duck's bill. It ate plants.
Parasaurolophus was a duck-billed dinosaur. The long crest on its head was hollow inside, with tubes that ran from its nose. It could walk on two legs or four.
Scientists have made models of the crest and blown air through them: they make a low, deep sound like a horn. Parasaurolophus may have called to its herd that way. Its mouth held rows and rows of teeth for grinding plants.
Every dinosaur number is scientists’ best guess from bones, so each one says where it came from.
How big was Parasaurolophus?
Parasaurolophus in numbers
| Length (nose to tail) | 30 ft9 m1scientists' estimate |
|---|---|
| Height at the hips | no checked number yet |
| Weight | no checked number yet |
| When it lived | no checked number yet |
| What it ate | leaves, twigs and pine needles |
| Fossils found in | western North America, including Utah, New Mexico and Alberta in Canada |
| What kind | an ornithopod: a beaked plant-eater that walked on two legs or four |
Wow!
- Its crest was a hollow tube, like a horn.
- It may have called to its herd with deep hoots.
- It could walk on two legs or four.
🦴 Parasaurolophus’s bones
Books about Parasaurolophus, free at the library
Ask a grown-up to tap the button: it shows where to borrow a book about Parasaurolophus for free.
Where was the land back then?
The continents were in different places when Parasaurolophus lived, in the Cretaceous. Open Planet Earth, pick Drifting continents, and slide back in time to see where the land was.
Its neighbours in time
Where these numbers come from
- Wikidata, from the Natural History Museum's Dino Directory, checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, Parasaurolophus (Q203583), checked 30 October 2026.
To read more: the Natural History Museum’s Dino Directory (see also, not copied).